312 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JlLY 



For the New England Farmer. 



DOUBLE PLOWS. 



Mr. Editor : — I recently took on trial, have 

 bought imd am now using a double or Michigan 

 Plow, of which I wish to say a few words to your 

 readers, if, peradventure, there be any among them 

 who doubt or are ignorant of the superior excel- 

 lence of that plow over all others. 



And, brother farmers, the best advice I can 

 give you is, try it! try the Michigan plow, with 

 a view to your own advantage, fully and faithfully, 

 and you will be convinced that it is one of the 

 things needful for the more successful cultivation 

 of our top-worn and surface eochaustcd soil. 



I have used my plow on plain and side hill, 

 among briars, bushes and roots, turning furrows 

 from six to twelve inches deep, and cutting from 

 t«n to sixteen inches wide, and every trial has been 

 satisfactory, though I took hold of the matter, at 

 the outset, faithlessly and reluctantly. And I 

 now declare that I will use no other plow on 

 sward land till some benefactor of his race (and 

 who is more worthy of that application than he 

 who invents a really useful agricultural imple 

 ment ?) shall produce an improvement upon the 

 ilichigan. 



Upon the importance of deep plowing, most in 

 telligent cultivators agree; and this is the chief 

 excdlence of digging deep and at the same time 

 turning completely over a wide furrow slice, hid 

 ing all grass that may be growing on the sod 

 with finely pulverized soil. It is sometimes ob 

 joctcd that soil turned up from a great depth is 

 cold, dead and worthless ; which if true, is obvia 

 t<;dby the use of this plow, as it, instead of solely 

 inverting the furrows, at thesametime mixes and 

 mingles the bottom and top soil together, thus pro- 

 ducing just the result desired. 



As it regards the strength of team necessary to 

 use the double plow, I am convinced that four 

 oxen will draw it easier than any other, doing the 

 same amount of work, regard being had to the 

 depth and width of furrow slice. e. j. 



Lebanon, N. B., May 15, 1854. 



For the New England Farmer. 



HAY OVER THE CATTLE. 



Mr. Editor : — I have often queried whether 

 there was any truth in the saying, that injures 

 hay to lay on a scaffold over stables where cattle 

 are kept through the winter. I, as most people 

 do, select the best hay for oxen and cows, and put 

 it upon scaffolds, where the same are stabled. I 

 have often noticed the cattle would eat hay from 

 the bays in preference to the scaffold hay. Now 

 I wish some one more experienced than myself to 

 answer the question, whether it does receive an 

 injury? Yours truly, 



Northern Subscriber. 



Canaan, N. H., May 15, 1854. 



Remarks. — In barns that are tight, we have no 

 doubt that hay receives some injury in being over 

 the leanto where cattle are tied. A gentleman 

 recently informed us that an examination into this 

 matter was made last year in the town of Grafton, 

 this State, ])y several perso s, and they found the 

 hay on scaffolds considerably affected, and, as they 



concluded, depreciated in value, by remaining 

 over the cattle. 



INDIAN MODE OF STORING THEIR 

 WINTER SUPPLY. 



This vei-y brief sketch of the agriculture of the 

 Indians would not be complete, without an allusion 

 to their mode of storing their winter supply. 

 Large holes were dug in the earth, and the sides 

 carefully lined with bark. This was also the work 

 of the women. The corn and the beans, after be- 

 ing dried in the sun, or on racks or flakes over a 

 fire, were thrown into these holes, and then covered 

 up level with the surface of the ground. They 

 were thus preserved, if necessary, through the 

 winter. These excavated barns were carefully 

 concealed, b}' tlie women, from their luzy husbands 

 and sons, lest they should discover and cat up all ; 

 yet, with all care they could take, the hogs of the 

 colonists often unhinged their barn-doors, and 

 helped themselves to the golden treasure. His- 

 tory says, that one of these Indian barns was dis- 

 covered by the Pilgrims, at a time when their store 

 of grain was so reduced as to contain but five ker- 

 nels of corn to each individual. 



In addition to this provision "for winter, they 

 sometimes made large boxes of Avicker-work, or 

 bags or sacks of hemp, which were filled and kept 

 in the wigwam, for the more imriiedlate wants of 

 the family. Grass they had no occasion to cut, 

 tliough it grew in great abundance along the mar- 

 shes and the rivers, and in places which had heen 

 cleared for cultivation. It was of a coarse quality, 

 yet it made the only hay used by the colonists for 

 some time after the settlement. 



To the rude implements used by the Indians, 

 the colonists added the plow. We may well 

 imagine the surprise of the natives at the first sight 

 of a plow. They could not understand so compli- 

 cated a machine. They wanted to see it work, 

 and when it tore up more ground in a day than 

 they, wiih their clam-shells, could scrape up in a 

 month, and they saw the colter and the share to 

 be of iron, they told the j^lowman if he was not 

 the devel himself, he was very much like him. 



The first sight of a ship, it will be remembered, 

 had excited their wonder even to a greater extent. 

 To them it was a floating island ; it masts were 

 nothing but trees ; its sails were clouds ; its dis- 

 charge of guns was thunder and lightning ; but, 

 as soon as the thunder and lighining ceased, they 

 pushed off their canoes to go and pick strawberries 

 on the island ! 



After this cursoi'y survey of the method of cul- 

 tivating the earth, in practice among the Pilgrims 

 and iheir Indian neighbors, we are better prepared 

 to trace the progress of agriculture down to the 

 present day. It was, at first, the only pursuit of 

 the settlers, and long continued to be their chief 

 occupation. 



We have seen that poor and miserable cattle, 

 poor and miserable implements — yet both as good 

 perhaps, as the time and their means afforded — 

 and poor and miserable ideas of farming, charac- 

 terized the agriculture of the first English settlers. 

 Nothing was done which was not forced upon them 

 by the pressure of necessity. Their wants were 

 so many, that it required their most vigorous ex- 

 ertions to provide what was indispensable, and 

 they had no time to seek out now principles of ag- 



